CNN focused more than 35 high-definition cameras on Yellin to get multiple views from Grant Park in Chicago for the look of a 3-D holographic image Tuesday. That made it appear as if Yellin was in the studio talking with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.

The cameras zoomed on Yellin in Chicago were in sync with the cameras used in New York, according to CNN.

CNN provided a preview of the technology to some press people in advance of the presidential election and said it would have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture a 360-degree image of the person being interviewed. CNN wanted to give users a better view by giving them a virtual person in a real set rather than a real person in a virtual set, David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president, told USA Today.

During Tuesday's election coverage, instead of viewers seeing a split screen featuring Blitzer and Yellin, viewers got to see Yellin's image in a different way.

'So Phony'

Jason Sapan, a commercial holographer for more than 30 years and founder of Holographic Studios, said CNN's image of Yellin was not a hologram.

A hologram is a photographic image that is three-dimensional and appears to have depth. They work by creating an image composed of two superimposed pictures of the same object, but seen from different points.

"Oh this is so phony. What they are doing at the very best is a series of flat images grouped together giving a separate view," Sapan said. "It is a standard, high-definition recording using a bunch of images, but they are not doing holography."

Sapan said the image gives the feel of dimension and appearance, but if you were to freeze the frame you couldn't walk around and see behind Yellin. "The bandwidth that exists with today's technology hardly exists to record that much information," he said.

Sapan referred to CNN's move as a blue-screen effect where a bunch of images are recorded.

The images used are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York, CNN told USA Today before election night.

Hollywood Tricks

Other ways of doing this include a technique called pepper's ghost, which is an illusion used in theaters and in some magic tricks. Using plate glass and special lighting techniques, it can make objects seem to appear or disappear. It can also make one object seem to "morph" into another.

Although Blitzer told Yellin she was a nice hologram, Bohrman only referred to the technology as "virtual."

"It is not healthy to group everything and put anything that is 3-D and call it a hologram," Sapan said. "Those of us in the field cringe when someone does this."